Mar 26 2012
Created and then purchased a new 8 in. x 8 in., 20-page photobook for free using a Shutterfly coupon. Usually the book costs $30. Only thing I paid for was the $8 shipping.
Click here to view this photo book larger
Mar 25 2012
Had another nice video chat all the way from Austin, Texas with my great friend Brenda and her furry, four-legged son, my nephew, Musi.
Mar 24 2012
Stepped on this long-ago deceased mouse’s lower jaw in my bathroom this morning. No idea how it got there. Didn’t even know what it was at first. It was so small I thought it was a claw. (That’s a square of toilet paper it’s resting on.)
To paraphrase Messrs. Cleese and Palin, it is an ex-mouse. It is no more. It has ceased to be. It is bereft of life. It is pining for the fjords.
Mouse choppers
Mar 23 2012
This afternoon, while I was outside weeding around the milkweeds again, my mom called for me (see what I did there?) from inside the house to let me know there was another alligator lizard, this time in the kitchen. It had scurried under the stove/oven. I moved the appliance away from the wall but we couldn’t find it. After checking inside the oven and lower drawer I finally located it along one of the drawer channels. I was able to coax into a small, empty, plastic trash can and then took it outside to let it run free into the plants along the side of the house. It seemed grateful. Judging from a large bulge in her middle, I believe she was pregnant.
Coiled and scared
Mar 23 2012
Took my mom down to Old Town this morning to visit the old Adobe Chapel on Conde St. It was the first parochial church in California’s first parish.
We had to first stop by the Whaley House Museum Shop to ask a docent to escort us down and unlock the gate and door for us. Unfortunately, they didn’t have an available docent right then and asked us to come back a little later. So, we walked ourselves down to the chapel to have a look around the exterior. Came across a mean looking guard dog that turned out to be very friendly. Unfortunately it wasn’t kept in a very clean pen. We also found some displays just across the street that gave a bit more history of the area with photographs. It was a nice touch for anyone who might walk by but the exhibited displays didn’t seem to be kept up very well. After that it was time to walk back to the Whaley House to meet our escort. Our docent, Pat, was very friendly and knowledgeable about not only the Adobe Chapel, but about a lot of Old Town’s history. The chapel was originally built as a home in 1850 and then bought and converted into a chapel in 1858 by Don José Antonio Aguirre, a wealthy and charitable local rancher.
Pat, who was dressed in Victorian period garb, unlocked the chained outside gate and then led us inside. She talked to us the entire time about the chapel’s history while I got busy taking pictures and asking questions. Luckily I studied up on the chapel before heading down there so I didn’t miss anything new she might have said. She even let me go up to the choir loft to get better overall views of the interior of the chapel.
The chapel fell into terrible disrepair during the late 1880s and was for a time covered with wooden slats to hide the deteriorating outside plaster walls. When the streets of Old Town were realigned in the 1930s the chapel was regretfully bulldozed. It was rebuilt in 1937 to its original state, retaining the original tabernacle, pews, doors, windows and other woodwork. José Aguirre’s tombstone can be found laid into the floor in one of the side vestibules where the confessionals are now located.
After we finished at the chapel, my mom and I spent a short time in the Casa de Aguirre Store and Museum to learn a bit more about José Aguirre’s family life. From there we stopped to have a fantastic lunch at Casa de Reyes in the middle of the Fiesta de Reyes. I had my usual, amazingly good two beef taco plate with beans and rice. Washed those down with a relaxing Negra Modelo.
It was a great visit to Old Town spent seeing and learning something new with my mom and enjoying a terrific meal.
( c h a p e l p i c s )
Mar 22 2012
This has always been one of my favorite pieces of Disney artwork depicting Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland. It was on an appreciation certificate from 1960.
Mar 21 2012
Met three of my girly friends, Sylvia, Mary and Stephanie, at Phil’s BBQ by the Sports Arena for a fantastic-as-always barbecue lunch and gossip kvetch. A wide variety of topics were discussed, including a lack of bathrooms on road trips, lack of bathrooms on airplanes, a lack of bathrooms in the desert, and a lack of bathrooms on hikes. We also talked briefly about movies, children and turbulence.
My meal of choice was the El Toro sandwich: one thousand pounds of char-grilled, deli-sliced tri-tip beef with BBQ sauce served on a really fresh and thick bun. It was easily enough for two meals. There was no way I could finish it. Actually, I don’t think any of us finished our meals. There was also a plate of amazing onion rings to be shared.
It was a fun lunch, just as I was expecting it to be.
Mar 21 2012
After she drove down from Los Angeles just this morning, I walked around Old Town with Stephanie, my friend from New Mexico who was at the end of her whirlwind visit of California. Took her to see the Seeley Stables museum, the restored original Casa de Estudillo adobe, took her inside the Church of the Immaculate Conception, passed the haunted Whaley House and finally down to the El Campo Santo Cemetery where I showed her Yankee Jim Robinson‘s grave as well as the grave markers on the street outside the cemetery walls. Finishing off our brief excursion we also got to see a donkey being led around by a park ranger. Not bad for a forty-five minute tour of Old Town.
Mar 21 2012
To celebrate Twitter’s sixth anniversary, I tried out a horribly named free service called TwBirthday that, once you input your Twitter handle, tells you what day you created your account and gives you a couple of other items of information, such as your godfather (first person you followed, I’m assuming; mine was tech podcasting babe, Cali Lewis) as well as an age percentage that I’m not 100% certain I understand, and your total time with an account in hours, months, days and years. Not terribly useful, but still, the certificate they create for you is a little cool.
Mar 20 2012
Really pretty stop-motion video of all sorts of colorful flowers opening up.
Mar 19 2012
My final day at the Tapias, after their return from Colorado, began with an early morning flyover of a loud and very large, low-flying military aircraft, descending toward North Island Coronado through the bottom of the dripping rain clouds. Lunch was a plateful of Delimex rolled tacos that Sylvia added deliciously fresh home-made salsa to as we watched the slightly disappointing season finale to “The Walking Dead” that was recorded the night before. The day, and my time in Chula Vista, ended with a drive home during a fantastic, post-rainstorm sunset.
Mar 18 2012
My last full day of house-sitting for Sylvia and Rodrigo. Started out with occasional heavy downpours and incredibly strong wind gusts, proof of which is the large, broken branch from the neighbor’s tree across the street, sandwiched between minutes of blue sky and sunshine. The one outdoor shot below was taken sandwiched between some steady rain and a powerful hail storm. Very bizarre weather patterns. Shooting a few more photos of Lilo and Stitch was the main extent of my day’s activities until that last shot which shows us in the cell phone parking lot near the airport, impatiently waiting to pick up their much missed parents.
Mar 17 2012
So today was a really rainy day which meant I was stuck inside. Didn’t really mind though since I had fun with Lilo and Stitch, including Lilo helping me get the mail and Stitch playing tug-a-war with his shredded, pink monkey. I also took a bunch more pictures, got updates about WonderCon from Randy, and I had my computer to play/work on. Most of the pictures today were macro shots of items I found around the Tapias’ house including some Disney toys, Coca Cola items, religious symbols, some of Sylvia’s bathroom art and, of course, a couple of items about Mickey (the dog, not the mouse). Kept checking on the poor little hummingbird nesting in the patio. She kept dry but I’m sure she wasn’t very comfortable with the rain, wind and humidity.
Tomorrow will be my final house-sitting day. I’m guessing there’ll be more pictures.
Mar 16 2012
Of course there are obviously the required daily shots of the doggies, but I also had a nice lunch with my good friend, Lannie, today at a nearby Rubio’s. We did what we always do…talk about our lives, but mostly about our friends’ lives. Normally I have my usual two fish tacos, but today I wanted something different. I tried the Salsa Verde Pan-Seared Shrimp Taco Plate which was amazingly fresh and good. It came with sliced avocados and was covered in cheese, a creamy chipotle sauce, cilantro and onions, and cabbage. I also added more cilantro and onions as well as some green chili sauce and some juice from fresh limes which made it over-the-top delicious. And since it was a plate, I had it with pinto beans and chips. Would have no problem ordering this meal again.
Today, like yesterday, ended with a fun video chat between Sylvia and Rodrigo in Colorado and the dogs and me here in Chula Vista.
Mar 15 2012
After being picked up the night before, spending the night and then dropping them off at the airport long before even the sun got up, I began my house-sitting for the Tapias by getting shots of not only their fur-kids, Lilo and Stitch, but also of a hummingbird that began nesting on an Asian-themed wind chime in their backyard patio. In between photo sessions I did some weeding for them since it’s what I like to do to relax. And so went the sunny portion of day number one. The day ended with a video chat with Sylvia and Rodrigo from Colorado so they could see their kids from 800 miles away.
